


Dead Men Don't Need Your Wallet

by daniomalley



Series: Dead Men [3]
Category: Bandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-10
Updated: 2013-04-10
Packaged: 2017-12-08 03:11:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/756324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daniomalley/pseuds/daniomalley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Gerard has gone off to Nelson to confront the source of the zombies, the people back in Northbrook have to get by on their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dead Men Don't Need Your Wallet

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of a missing scene from Dead Men Can't Look Up, an account of what happens in Northbrook while the MCR guys are gone. It was originally posted on 8/12/11. This is a hc_bingo fill for the zombie apocalypse square.

Christa was the one who saw it. She was on watch, up on the roof of a house on the northern edge of town. The zombie was shuffling through the small field behind the Dewees house. No one was going to be out there, but Christa knew she needed to sound the warning straight away. There could be others.

Since Gerard and the rest had left nearly two weeks earlier, they had seen zombies nearly every day. At first, there had often been small groups of them, sometimes two or three times a day. Now, there weren’t as many of them, but there were enough around to remind people that it wasn’t safe. Children didn’t play outside anymore. The adults didn’t go out to tend their fields. They went in groups, armed and watchful, to feed the livestock. For some reason the zombies ignored the sheep and cattle; they only attacked people.

Christa picked up the small bell beside her and rang it vigorously. The zombie heard it and turned in her direction, but Christa knew it had no chance of reaching her. She raised her arm to point towards the zombie, so the people in the streets below would know where the threat lay.

Most of the townspeople gathered together and headed into the centre of town, to the post office. It was the place they had fortified to stand against zombie attacks, if they came in the same numbers as they had a fortnight ago. There was another group of people, though, who gathered their weapons and grouped together to follow the direction of Christa’s pointing, ready to take on the zombie. Christa could see Lindsey leading them, clutching her rifle with a firm grip and looking determined. Since this had all begun, Lindsey had taken the lead again and again to make their town safe and ensure that everyone did what was needed.

Christa watched with some interest as the small group advanced on the zombie. It was harder to follow now, having passed behind some of the buildings and disappeared from view. She still knew the general direction, however.

She was watching so intently that she was very startled to hear the sound of someone climbing onto the roof behind her.

“Christa?” asked the newcomer.

“Shit!” Christa jumped and spun around with a glare.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

“What are you doing up here, Alicia?”

Alicia hesitated, and Christa noticed for the first time that she seemed deeply upset about something.

“I can’t find Boyd.”

“Oh...” Christa’s voice trailed off as she struggled for words. Boyd was Alicia’s son. He should have been at the post office with the other children. Stomach twisting with worry, she turned back to where she had last seen the zombie. She couldn’t see it, but she could hear the sounds of a scuffle happening in one of the streets a little way off, and a minute or two later, a ragged cheer indicating that the zombie had been killed.

Alicia stepped away from Christa, rubbing the palms of her hands against her pants. “I need to go look for him,” she said.

Christa nodded, and replied “Yeah.” She couldn’t go with Alicia, she had to stay on watch. Alicia looked so miserable, though, that she couldn’t resist reaching out and pulling her into a hug. Alicia clung to her for a few long minutes, and Christa could feel her trembling slightly with tension and anxiety.

Alicia pulled away eventually and took a shaky breath. “Right,” she said, and she marched away to climb down from the roof. 

Christa waited on the roof for another thirty minutes, and then heard someone climbing up behind her. Looking around, she saw her daughter, Laura.

“What are you doing up here?” she asked, her voice a little sharp because Laura wasn’t supposed to be out by herself, she was supposed to be inside with the other children.

Laura just grinned at her and shrugged. “Lindsey is with me,” she said, gesturing over her shoulder where Christa could see Lindsey climbing up onto the roof. “She thought I might be able to find Boyd.” She walked to the edge of the roof and stood, looking around him.

Christa looked at Lindsey, who just flicked a sheepish glance back towards her. Christa had to admit it was a good idea, though. Laura was good at finding things. She could always find keys and jewellery that had been lost in odd places. She could always tell if a die were loaded, and when they took their vegetables to market, she always knew if a few coppers was really all the customer could afford.

She’d never done anything like this, though. Never found a missing person. Christa wondered if she would be able to, and what would happen if she failed.

She stood at Lindsey’s side for several long minutes, trying not to break Laura’s concentration. It was hard, though, to resist the urge to ask stupid questions, like, ‘have you found anything yet’? She managed, and eventually, Laura focused on one particular direction, and said, “He’s that way.”

“Where, exactly?” Lindsey asked, because Laura wasn’t being terribly specific.

“I dunno. I need to get closer.” Without waiting for further discussion, Laura began to clamber down from the roof. Christa gave Lindsey a pained look. She knew she couldn’t leave the roof while she was needed on watch, but she didn’t want her daughter going somewhere possibly dangerous without her. Lindsey must have guessed what she was thinking, because she said, “I’ll send James up to relieve you.”

Christa climbed down from the roof with relief, and followed Laura and Lindsey through a garden and over a fence into the fields on the edge of town. Alicia was with them as well, and a few other people with weapons in case there were any more zombies. Christa tried not to think what would happen if they were too late to stop Boyd being turned. 

Laura changed direction slightly a few times, and stopped for a few minutes once they reached the sparse woods on the other side of the fields, but she never wavered in her certainty that she knew where Boyd was. Christa reflected again that Laura could be a mage, if she ever went to university. It was unlikely, out here, so far from the city and with no money to pay for it. Laura would be just like anyone else with an untrained magical talent. She’d learn an ordinary trade and live an unremarkable life. But she still thought, sometimes, about what else might be possible for her.

“How do you know?” Lindsey asked, looking across at Laura.

“Uh?” Laura glanced back at her, then grinned and shrugged. “Boyd always wears this, like, this chain? Around his neck?”

“It was his grandfather’s,” Alicia spoke up softly.

“Yeah,” said Laura. “And I can tell where it is. I can sort of feel it, in here.” She tapped his forehead.

One of the men who had come along with them in case of zombies perked up at that. “So, you can tell where metals are? Can you do that with other types of metals?”

“Bert, this isn’t really the time,” said Lindsey repressively.

“Right. Sorry.”

“There isn’t any gold around here, anyway,” Laura continued obliviously. “All the mines ran dry years ago.”

Christa and Lindsey exchanged a glance, and Christa hustled forward to walk a little bit closer to Laura. She was used to the things she could do. Sometimes she forgot how it might seem to someone who didn’t know her so well. She wondered what it meant, that Laura was actually leading them towards the chain that Boyd liked to wear. If he’d lost it, they might not find him after all. Or he might already have... Christa shut that train of thought off and glanced toward Alicia. Her face was pale and pinched, and even though she was right in the middle of the group she looked very alone. Christa reached out impulsively and squeezed her hand. Alicia looked at her, startled for a moment, but then the tension around her eyes eased a little bit. Christa held her hand a minute longer before letting go.

Laura sped up, explaining, “We’re getting close!” Lindsey and Bert raced forward, trying to get in front of her in case they ran into anything unfriendly.

There wasn’t anything, though. They passed through the last dense cluster of trees, and there was Boyd a few feet away, sitting on a log.

“Oh!” Alicia gasped, racing ahead and wrapping her arms around him.

“Mommy!” Boyd cried. “I got lost.”

For the next few minutes Alicia and Lindsey alternately scolded Boyd and questioned him about what had happened while checking him for bites. Eventually, Boyd was pronounced unharmed and Alicia took his hand firmly as they set out to return to the safety of their village. Christa hung back where she could keep a watchful eye over her own child, and Lindsey fell into step beside her.

“That was too close,” Lindsey murmured.

Christa nodded. “If we hadn’t been able to find him...” She let the thought trail off, not wanting to finish it. It was what they had been afraid of ever since this nightmare had begun, though. Ever since that first terrible night, they had been careful and they hadn’t lost anyone else. But how long could they keep doing this for? How long would they need to?

“That kid of yours is something special.”

“She is.” Christa looked fondly at Laura, who was trying to cheer Boyd up after his misadventure.

“Her... ability... there might be ways we could use it. We should try to figure something out –we need every advantage we can get.”

“She’s my daughter, Lindsey, not some advantage. And she’s just a girl,” said Christa reproachfully.

“Maybe, but that won’t keep her safe.” Lindsey gave Christa a hard look, and Christa hated her for being right. She wanted her daughter to have a childhood and a normal life. But that was just a dream for all of them now.

“It might not matter,” Christa said hopefully. “Gerard might be able to stop this, like he said he would.”

“Maybe.” Lindsey sounded doubtful, and Christa couldn’t blame her.

“He might,” she said stubbornly. “He might.”


End file.
